The Line

Adam Krajnak heads a ring that smuggles across the border between Slovakia and Ukraine, and he is also a family man. He has set his own rules; he does not move drugs. When his Ukrainian partner wants to break that rule things slip. As his eldest daughter's wedding approaches, control at the border tightens and Adam sees that he cannot protect his ring and his family at the same time. Peter Bebjak's Slovak Ukrainian co-production takes place in the autumn of 2007, just before Slovakia entered the Schengen area; the border about to close is the clock on the whole story. Bebjak won best director at Karlovy Vary for it and the film was Slovakia's Oscar submission that year. The violence is hard, and the telling neither romanticises the smuggling nor gives it as simple crime.